It is very important that one should know whom to listen and whom to ignore. The most important people that one should listen are parents as they advise and guide in the right direction and always want their children’s well being. It is important that one should listen to their elders who are other than parents like grandparents, elder siblings and other members of the family and sometimes even friends, but it’s not always that they are heard. It is obvious for most of the people that they do not listen at all to their younger siblings and individuals younger than a generation while they have some good advice sometimes. The most common reason is that one considers them less experienced and immature which is not always right.

On the contrary, it is obvious that the things said by outsiders, strangers or people who are not important are taken seriously. This might include a comment or compliment or anything in general, their opinion actually does not matter but still one tend to listen to that and it is common to take their spoken things seriously. The outsiders have no concern to our personal lives and hence have no say in it yet mostly they affect it and this should be changed and one should not listen to the people who are not directly concerned. The important reasons behind these preferences are the effect people have in the life of person concerned. This is a known fact that parents are the most important in most people in life and thus one should always listen to them.

Parents are more deeply connected with us rather than any other family member or relative and thus there is a tendency that we are not much concern with what they say although it is not always right as they also want our well being, though we do not listen to them but it would be nice if we listen. Another very common occurrence is not listening to the people younger than us because of obvious understanding that they are less mature than us and thus unable to give good advice. This might not be right always and it should be gauged based on the situation. It is found that we are affected most by things said by people who do not matter at all. There is a tendency to take people who are concerned granted, and give importance to the ones who are outsiders or are least bothered about us.

Part 2: Critical listening

The two channels broadcasted five stories which were common to both and had a strong political undertone. The first story was about Obama’s re – election and its coverage, the second story include the various promises made by the Obama government for the next tenure. The third news was about a local accident which killed 2 people and the fourth one included detailed score and highlights of the latest basketball match. The fifth news mentioned the weather report and has forecasted about stormy snowy climate for the coming days in United States. The two channels aired the same five news items but there were differences in the content. The first channel gave more time and emphasis to the first two political news items while the second channel paid equal attention to all the new items.

The first channel seemed to be a tad more appreciative of the campaign by Obama and his future goals while the second one seemed to take it with a bit of humor and thus gave an opinion that it might have used a mocking language which is because of the likelihood of their support to the opposition. The sports and climate news were given equal importance by both the channels. The second channel however, made much more hue and cry over the death of the two people in the local accident because it was due to the ignorance of maintaining the structures where they died because of breaking a staircase of an old building. The content was covered fine about the five news aired on the two channels but first channel was more informative while the second channel seems to dramatize and exaggerate the information.

Part 3: Listening appreciation

Interpersonal listening was a lot different than the kind of listening observed in this website as it had more concentrated listening activities. Listening to nature to figure out the activities of birds, rustling of leaves and flowing of river was very different than listening to peers or parents. It also had a blind man who used listening skills to get around and thus had much important task to do than just share conversation with someone. Another activity observed on this website was listening to make music which also requires a keen interest and deep knowledge of the kind of sounds different instruments or things made.

The fourth kind of listening analyzed on the website was listening to solve problems of the vehicles as was done by a professional as an auto mechanic which can judge the condition of the vehicle by the sound they make. The fifth kind of listening analyzed on this website was listening to process sound which also requires much attention and keen interest to understand the sounds. This was done by making use of an instrument which require to have a gadget stuck by the ear which can record the sounds processed by the brain and as they appear to the human understanding. These all types of listening processes were more constructive and much more concentrating than interpersonal listening and are performed by skilled professionals.

The country I have chosen is China. If my company was to do business in this chosen country, there are more than a few different types of social hierarchies and social interactions that I should be aware of. Understanding and managing a vast socio-cultural framework in the context of neo-capitalist economy requires a well-thought-out socio-cultural policy, and a continual balance has to be struck between the company’s business objectives and socio-cultural ground realities, including hierarchies to which it ought to adapt. Moreover, different regions in China require different services and products that suit them. Without compromising on the company’s objectives and goals, the company has to establish itself in a vast country wherein it has take care of social realities and hierarchies. In China almost everyone has developed an appreciation of their country’s art. To a great degree. Yet, little government money actually goes to the cultural sector, a difference from what is noted in other European countries. Moreover, the revenue generated by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities does not end up in the Ministry’s own coffers but rather those of the Treasury, which in return manages its allocation. This procedure, which was introduced in 2007, aroused a fair deal of criticism among the participants. A basic understanding of these points is critical for anyone who wishes to do business, trade, or any connections with those in China (Aspen Institute Italia, 2010).

Question #2

Given the points I presented in the last part of this answer, I feel it would be most fortuitous to pursue a management style that appreciate and conserve the well-recognized cultural heritage there in China. I feel that a successful business relationship with the Chinese shall take into consideration their tremendous appreciation for the arts. I would propose to all of my employees that they duly recognize and appreciate Chinese art, artists, and literature while understanding its socio-economic framework in present global scenario. Furthermore, I would ask my employees to exercise caution while implementing its policies in an alien context .without compromising on its goals

Question #3

Obviously, the most important barrier for my staff to be conscious of is the difference in language. Then another barrier understands of Chinese art, culture and social hierarchies. I would encourage my employees to take language classes in Chinese or any vernacular. There are more than a small number of companies that specialize in supporting new workers in a foreign land. Companies such as X and Y have achieved success in training business personnel in language courses. My employees could utilize these courses in their own free time, and equip themselves with necessary skills.

Question #4

This is a very delicate proposition. The question has to do with the culture of China. To provide my response, I would say that it would be a tempting idea to think that one should adapt oneself to the new land wherein he sets up his business..But this is true to a certain point. However, I would not want any of my Chinese customers to lose the excellent customer service and superior values that our company has to offer. It will be critical to interconnect with the Chinese in this new business venture in a way that is appealing. However, we should keep our company’s ideals as intact as possible.

A. In the following exercises use the data in the Premiere Products database shown in Figure 2-1 in Chapter 2.

Find the order number and order date for every order that contains part number XX34

Solution:

SELECT OrderNum, OrderDate FROM Orders

where OrderNum IN

( Select OrderNum from OrderLine

Where PartNum like ‘__34′)

Find the order number and order date from every order that includes a part located in warehouse number 12.

Solution:

SELECT OrderNum, OrderDate FROM Orders

where OrderNum IN

( Select OrderNum from OrderLine

Where PartNum IN

(select PartNum from Part

where Warehouse like ’12′))

SAME AS #2 but use nested queries.

Solution:

SELECT OrderNum, OrderDate FROM Orders

where OrderNum IN

( Select OrderNum from OrderLine

Where PartNum IN

(select PartNum from Part

where Warehouse like ’12′))

Use INTERSECT. List customer number, customer name for every customer who is either represented by sales rep number 345 or who currently has orders on file (CustomerNUM in ORDERS).

Solution:

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

Intersect

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

where repNum like ’345′

Union

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

where CustomerNum IN

(select CustomerNum from Orders)

Use MINUS. List customer number, customer name for every customer who is either represented by sales rep number 345 or who does not have orders currently on file.

Solution:

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

Minus

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

where repNum like ’345′

Union

SELECT CustomerNum, CustomerName FROM Customer

where CustomerNum IN

(select CustomerNum from Customer

Minus

Select CustomerNum from Orders)

2. Normalization

A. “Obtain a common document such as a sales slip, customer invoice from an auto repair shop, credit card statement, etc. anything you have will work, make sure personal information is not given or visible. Build your database to include the below information. ***see note below assignment requirements.

Use the normalization steps described in this chapter to convert this user view to a set of relations in third normal form.

Draw a relational schema.

Solution:

List several integrity rules that you would recommend to ensure the quality of the data in this application” (Hoffer, Prescott, & Topi, 2009, p. 250).

“Denormalization can be a controversial topic among database designers. Some believe that any database should be fully normalized. Others look for ways to denormalize to improve processing performance. What is your opinion? Why?” (Hoffer, Prescott, & Topi, 2009, p. 302).

Solution:

Denormalization is the process of optimizing database performance by adding the redundant data or by grouping the data. We should use denormalization to eliminate the inefficiencies in the database. Using denormalization we can view the objects as one to many relationship as an attribute of one relation. But there are certain risks of using denormalization. Denormalization can only be accomplished with a good knowledge of the database. If performance problems indicate that demoralization is needed then we should use demoralization and must consider the amount of effort needed to demoralize the database and update changes but one of the disadvantage of demoralization is that database update occur more slowly.

What do you see as major differences in administration between open-source databases, such as MySQL, and commercial database products, such as Oracle? How might these differences come into play when choosing a database platform? Summarize the DBA functions of MySQL versus PostgresSQL“(Hoffer, Prescott, & Topi, 2009, p. 612).

Solution:

Most of the companies try to recognize and manage the information by using the database systems. Selecting the right relational database management system is difficult especially for those companies which plan to organize their business around it. Various factors help in deciding whether to select to open source database or commercial database. Cost is the major factor which helps in the selection of database. There are various differences between open source and commercial database.

An open source operating system is acquired at no or low costs but lack in other areas like support as compared to commercial databases.

Commercial products have better support for their products while an open source product does not have such type of support for their products.

Many organizations do not need high availability features and can make use of an open source RDBMS at much lower cost.

Commercial databases provide various features for their products as compared to open source database.

Example of commercial database is Oracle and of open source database is MySQL.

These differences play an important role for selecting the database. For every organization there are various needs and priorities of various organizations. So it cannot be said about the use of particular database, it varies from organization to organization. Two identical organizations can make different choices, the organization deciding to pay for the high availability features will choose commercial database and other who decide to forgo those features will choose an open source product like MySQL.

Mysql is assumed to be the faster and less full featured of the two database systems while PostgreSQL is more densely featured database system often prescribed as an open source version of oracle. PostgreSQL is a unified database server with the single storage engine. MySQL has two layers, an upper SQL layer and a set of storage engine. Most common storage engine in mysql is InnoDB for almost full ACID support and provide high performance on large workloads. PostgreSQL and Mysql both have an impressive array of features that increase data integrity, functionality and performance. These features included in the database help the database to improve the performance, ease of use and functionality or stability. Postgresql provide various features like: efficient executor for both static sql, TOAST data compression, improved cache management and huge scalability on write intensive workloads. Mysql supports stored procedures while Postgresql supports stored functions.

Discuss which characteristic of a project manager is more important to high performance teams—use of power or motivation? Use specific examples from your textbook and one additional scholarly source to support your claim.

Reply-

As per my views, use of motivation is much more important when compared with the usage of power for the purpose of driving high performing team to attain certain project deadlines or commitments. High performing teams most of the time work under stiff deadline and therefore the amount of pressure of work also remains up to the mark and in such circumstances it is vital for each of the team members working as part of the high performing team to understand properly the requirement of the project as well the key deliverables and the requirement of the client as much as possible and try to work in accordance to the prescribed instructions. Now, here the role of the manager handling the sole onus of the project is tremendous. There are two ways to push the team, one way is to showcase power and the other is to inspire the team. Now, as per the common scenario, most often it is observed that team members under pressure stumble to work in fear of doing something wrong and it also hinders the way they think and so it restricts rather than helping the cause of accelerating the overall progress of the work. On the contrary, when high performing teams are motivated for example by saying simple words like saying something like “You guys are going a good job… Do carry on with it and keep rocking” (Katzenbach, J.R. 2010) imparts a great impact in the mind of each of the team members working as part of the high performing team and as such they are bound to get motivated to the maximum possible extent and quite naturally they feel the urge from very within and in such a state of mind, work is bound to progress at a rate faster than when work is done under stress and pressure. So, it is motivation rather than sheer pressure on part of the senior people that ultimately help the cause but then that does not imply that the project manager will always behave the same since there are also circumstances when a project is nearing deadline and only half of the work is done at such circumstances only motivation may not suffice rather it should be coupled with little bit of pressure as well but that is not always should be the case since a high performing team as the name suggests should always be ready to face the challenge and meet tight deadlines as per the requirement of critical project activities so overall the impact of motivational quotient by far surpasses the impact created by showcasing of power. (AceMyHW)

Choosing only one of the team development stages, discuss what stage of development is the most critical for high-performance and project success. Use specific concepts and ideas from your textbook and one additional scholarly source to support your decision.

Reply-

There are certain specific stages so far the development cycle of any project work is concerned and among those stages the development phase is the most crucial one as per my understanding. And there are a number of reasons in support of the same. The first one is that development phase is the time frame when the process of requirement gathering from client and understanding each and every point of the prescribed requirement remains on progress and each and every team member working as a team needs to delve deep to perform up to the mark and since the deadline in development phase remains quite sharp so pressure always remains high and working under a condition of high pressure always is a challenge but also is cause for success since it has been observed that it the challenge that helps bringing out the best out of a person and so challenge is good for the overall progress and during the lifecycle of the project the development phase should get the stamp of critical stage in accordance with the rationale mentioned above. There are ample evidences to this as well as can be derived out of the past project activities. The Sun America Life Insurance company required a entire web application to be built up with complex business logic being established throughout the project deliverables (UK DTI, 2003). The team responsible for meeting up the deliverables did an excellent job and received client appreciation profusely during the development phase of the project for meeting up the strict deadline and finishing the development work although the testing phase required lot of code fixing in areas where deemed necessary but that did not matter a great deal since the first impression was good in front of the client the same team bagged another project from the same client for the kind of delivery them provided and that too in compliance with all the security mechanisms in place and within fixed budget and time. And as such so far my understating and feeling goes, the development phase of any type of project work stands out to be most critical as well as beneficial one from the perspective of the team working on it since it only requires meeting up with project deliverables and meeting up with deadline fixed by the client and if that can be ensured most of the time it is success which is achieved at the end.